Al Jazeera investigation: ‘Israel’ sold equipment for Bangladesh to spy on regime’s opponents

Occupied Palestine (QNN)- Bangladesh has bought Israeli surveillance equipment that can be used to monitor the mobile phones of hundreds of people simultaneously, an Al Jazeera investigation has found.

An investigation by Al Jazeera revealed that the Bangladesh army bought the Israeli equipment in 2018 using a Bangkok-based middleman and Bangladeshi military intelligence officers trained in Hungary by Israeli intelligence experts.

The contract, acquired by Al Jazeera, lists the country of origin for the equipment as Hungary, although secret recordings by Al Jazeera show the middleman explicitly saying the equipment was from Israel.

“The contractor said no way that people in Bangladesh should know that this product comes from Israel,” Al Jazeera quoted its undercover source, Sami, whose name has been changed for his security.

Bangladesh has no diplomatic relations with the occupation state and trade with it is prohibited. It has the world’s fourth-largest Muslim population and does not allow its citizens to travel there, citing the military occupation of Palestinian lands. Officially, it has said it will not recognise Israel until there is an independent Palestinian state.

The spyware contract was signed by the Bangladesh military intelligence agency, the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI), and PicSix, an Israel-based firm run by former Israeli intelligence agents. A Bangkok-based Irish national, James Moloney, acted as a middleman.

The mobile phone monitoring systems Bangladesh bought, so-called IMSI-catchers, are often used by authorities to keep track of attendees during protests and demonstrations. It is capable of tracing 200 to 300 mobile phones at the same time.

The occupation state is known of being home to several spyware firms that manufacture spyware and sell it to the third-world’s authoritarian regimes. Israeli retired intelligence officials are usually responsible for opening such firms, which make spytech that are usually used against human rights activists and political opponents of authoritarian regimes.